Reviewer:
Hank Ka
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March 17, 2014
Subject:
"Long Long Ago," there were writers worth reading.
I happened across this book in a used book store. I was intrigued by a passage on page 203 in the chapter called "Book Markers" wherein Wollcott was discussing Jane Austen.
The quote of Logan Pearsall Smith reads, "There is a gulf between us and into the gulfs that so dreadfully yawn between people who share many fine tastes together, it is best not to peer-best it is to shudder and pass on."
That quote, read in 2014, neatly sums up western culture today. I am no scholar and I certainly do not have a background in the theater but as I read Mr. Woollcott's Long, Long, Ago I realize how much we have lost in this age of digitization.
I chuckled at Mr. Woollcott's admiration Jane Austen's books. I reluctantly, at first, watched most of the movies based on her books with my wife of 50 plus years. I discovered I do enjoy them and will continue to see them.
I was born in 1941 and Mr. Woollcott has given me a window into the world I was born into. I wish I could have met him; perhaps in a small way,I have.